“No. I just… I felt this pull to go forward, and I did.” I looked up at him, but this time, instead of glaring at me, he was glaring at the fae man’s back like it was all his fault. I slid my hand up his chest. “He can help us. We need the answers he keeps.” Ajax looked at me, fear but also excitement shaped his eyes as he nodded.
I followed the fae man’s steps, with everyone following me. I could hear Hemlock eagerly whisper, “I am so fucking excited. We never got this far, Tally!”
As soon as I got to the door, I heard the man say, “Come in. I have a book to show you.”
That was all it took for me to grab the handle and open the door. A whoosh of warm air came rushing at me and I stepped across the threshold. The inside of his lighthouse was very humble. He had a wooden table off to the corner with two chairs. A few steps away was a fireplace. A black cauldron was hanging above the hearth, cooking something that smelled amazing. Off to the side of that was a wooden work table with rows of cabinets above it that held, I assumed, various spices and ingredients. What was weird was there was not a book in sight. For someone who was named the Librarian, I felt like it was a little anticlimactic.
We all crammed into the room, all of us taking up most of the space when the fae man said, “I rarely have so many visitors, sorry for not having more chairs and room.” He had taken his hood down and I saw a long mane of bright blue hair, pale skin and his eyes that shined like pure gold as he continued to stir the ingredients in the pot.
I said nothing, just watched and looked at my surroundings, waiting for the fae man to make the next move. Apparently, that was not working for Ajax and he barked out, “We are here to see the book of the-”
“Royals. Yes, I know.” He kept stirring like he had all the time in the world. Hemlock started to veer off from the group, looking at all the stuff on the worktable before the librarian snapped out, “Don’t touch that.”
Her fingers were an inch away from touching some pretty orange flower in the corner before she tucked her hand back and stuck out her tongue at him.
He sighed, complaining about the youth and their need to rush everything, under his breath as he walked over to the stone spiral staircase off to the side. He went up a few steps before he let out another sigh. “Are you coming?”
I looked at the guys and they shrugged and we started to follow after him. Talican, Rath and her two other people said they would stay at the bottom level and wait for us to return. I think they felt like this was an ‘us’ thing and not a ‘them’ thing, but Hemlock had no such problems. She shoved her way right next to me as we walked up the steps together, eagerness making her bounce on her toes.
We got about halfway up when we saw a large wooden door that had a magical seal on it. He put his hand up and said some fae words I hadn’t heard before, and the symbols on the door lit up and shifted.
He put his hand on the door and it immediately popped open as he waved us all in, rolling his eyes as we paused at the door. “Go in, or you are just going to be left out.” His warning worked, and we all ran in quickly.
Since this was a lighthouse, I expected this room to be small, knowing the structure of the building and how it was the largest at the bottom and the thinnest at the top, but I should’ve known better when dealing with a fae.
We stepped across the doorway, and suddenly a giant room was before us. Miles and miles of books lined the walls that went up over a hundred feet. There were bookshelves lined up in the middle of the room, with a few tables scattered around. The light in the room mimicked the sun while not having a single window. It was amazing and magical. You couldn’t help but stare around the room in awe, feeling small compared to the history these walls kept inside. This place made you understand you were just a blip in the span of our world’s history.
“Exquisite, isn’t it?” The fae man said behind me. I steeled my spine, refusing to let him know he caught me off guard. I nodded, not trusting my voice to not squeak out in embarrassment.
“Come then. We shall get you the information you seek.” He walked off to the side of the room, lifting his finger to his lips as he was mumbling to himself about where the book was. I followed him, having one question circling in my head, bugging me to ask him.
As he went up a library ladder I saw my opening. “How did you know we were coming?”
He paused on the ladder for a second and looked down at me. “I’ve been waiting for you. You are the blend, the mix, and our land needs your help. You are one of the three that have been prophesied to battle the great evil.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing nothing about this supposed prophecy, reminding me what the charlatans of Cantoon would tell tourists on the streets in order to steal from them. He smiled again as he waved me off. “Don’t worry. You have time to find yourself before you battle the great evil. You all do, but what you are doing here is the start of a long journey that the great Oracle Lena has prophesied.”
“Who?” I was now getting confused with his half answers and using names and terms I didn’t know about.
“I apologize. I am going too fast.” He bowed his head at me. “I am just so excited about it all.” He turned back around and went up a few more steps until he got about three-fourths of the way up and reached for a large leather book. The book looked so heavy that I moved underneath him in case I needed to catch him from falling.
“Here it is.” He came down the ladder, putting his back to the stairs so that if he fell backwards, it would be onto the steps behind him.
He lugged the enormous book over to a table and suddenly everyone surrounded it. All of our eyes enraptured with the item we had traveled so far and risked death just for a glimpse at its pages of information.
I hoped that this lost royal was still alive. I was ready to know who the lost royal was, who I needed to find and bring back to Onisea. When I saw his work table when we first came into this lighthouse I recognized some of the ingredients on it, realizing that the librarian also practiced nature magic and might be able to help us with a locator spell to put us on the right track for this lost royal. I sent out a final thought to my close friend.I was getting close, Vance. I could feel it.
I looked down and noticed a large lock on the side, about to point it out, when the fae man pulled out a key that was on a necklace around his neck. He stuck it in and twisted it open, the anticipation almost killing me as he started to slowly turn the pages to the right spot.
He ran his hand down a few of the pages, looking through the lists of names that had various data next to it. The script on the pages lit up when he touched them, almost like it was alive and responding to his touch. Finally, he stopped, his eyes looking down in confusion as he looked up at me, “You are looking for the child of Princess Amelia and Manis the Rebel?”
“Is princess Amelia the daughter of King Oberan?” I asked because I couldn’t really remember the princesses name, just that she and Manis died with the king that night.
“Yes. That is what it says here.” He looked down again as his lips turned into a thin line and he swiveled the book over to me. I looked down, expecting to see a name in the fancy script like all the others, but it was blank. The only thing underneath it was a description.
I read it out loud, “Female, Twenty-six years of age, athletic build, skilled in combat. Brown eyes, pale skin and…” I looked up at the fae man as I breathed in disbelief, “and Emerald green hair.” I heard Zayden and Hemlock gasp, but I didn’t take my eyes off the Librarian.
His eyes sparked with a knowing look as I threw the book at him. “What is this trick? What game are you trying to play?”
